Scenius is a new project that involves Steve Whitfield from the band Klammer. I had the good fortune to review one of their singles last year and saw them live as a support act for Glen Matlock in Manchester. When I heard of Steve’s new project I could have been forgiven for thinking that it was a project along the same lines as Klammer, notably a post-punk sound with a modern twist. Nothing could actually be further from the truth, Scenius has a full on electronic sound with a touch of pop thrown in.
The band consists of Steve Whitfield based in Leeds and Fabrice Nau based in Angers in France – this collaboration is unexpected but it absolutely works based on this, their debut single, {their second single Wild And Woolly is due to be released tomorrow [Friday 3 April]} – “Glass Rain”.
The intro to the new track is interesting, I am going to describe it as catchy because that’s what it is but it has way more depth than that. It is definitely retro sounding, it harps back to work from Human League, New Order and Depeche Mode. The way it has been mixed makes it much more modern sounding than simply playing an old track from one of those bands – it lasts for just over 3.5 minutes and is compelling the whole way through. I played it on repeat whilst writing this review and found myself singing along and swaying after just a couple of plays which is a real compliment.
I suspect the target audience for this is probably someone of my age who can remember the electro revolution first time around but I could easily imagine this playing at a student party or club night and it would not feel out of place.
The vocal from Fabrice is superb, something that can get lost in this genre of music. However, he delivers this with just the right amount of emotion which in this case means that less is more. The vocal needs to sound almost robotic but human enough to deliver and Fabrice does this perfectly.
If this is the standard of what we can expect from Scenius then their popularity is going to grow significantly over the next few years. It is a brilliant start and I hope their next releases will live up to this one, but for now I suggest we all simply enjoy “Glass Rain” for what it is – a brilliantly catchy piece of electro pop that instantly makes you want to hit the repeat button again and again.
Reviewer - John Fish
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